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Verizon to cut over 13k jobs in major restructuring
United States wireless carrier Verizon will reduce its workforce by more than 13,000 in its largest single layoff as it aims to shrink costs and restructure operations. The company said it plans to convert 179 corporate-owned retail stores into franchised operations and close one store. Alongside the job cuts, Verizon said it will also significantly reduce outsourced and other outside labour expenses. "Our current cost structure limits our ability to invest significantly in our customer value proposition," Schulman wrote in a note to employees seen by Reuters. "We must simplify our operations to address the complexity and friction that slow us down and frustrate our customers." Last week, news outlets reported that Verizon planned to cut approximately 15,000 employees, with most of the layoffs affecting its American workforce. According to Schulman, the company will be establishing a US$20 million career transition fund for laid-off employees to focus on "opportunities and necessary skill sets as we enter the age of AI”, despite saying he layoffs were not a result of AI. At the end of last year, the wireless carrier had 100,000 employees, according to security filings. A spokesperson for Verizon confirmed t
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Larry Summers resigns from OpenAI on Epstein connection
Former United States Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has resigned from the OpenAI board after Congress released documents revealing a close connection between Summers and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Summers said he would be stepping back from all public commitments to allow himself to rebuild trust and repair relationships”. "In line with my announcement to step away from my public commitments, I have also decided to resign from the board of OpenAI," Summers said in a statement to Axios. "I am grateful for the opportunity to have served, excited about the potential of the company and look forward to following their progress." Summers was also a former Harvard president, and the university said it is set to launch an investigation into his connections to Epstein. The investigation will also look into other university affiliates named in the documents, according to the university’s newspaper, where Summers is still a professor. "Larry has decided to resign from the OpenAI Board of Directors, and we respect his decision. We appreciate his many contributions and the perspective he brought to the Board," OpenAI 's board of directors said in a statement. Trump has ordered the U.S. Justice Department to
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Anthropic hits cloud trifecta with US$30bn Microsoft deal
Anthropic has secured commitments of up to US$15 billion from Microsoft and NVIDIA as part of a sweeping strategic partnership that will see the Claude maker spend $30 billion on Azure compute capacity and adopt NVIDIA's next-generation chip architecture. The deal sees Microsoft invest up to $10 billion and NVIDIA up to $5 billion in Anthropic, marking NVIDIA's first deep technology partnership with the AI safety-focused company. Also part of the agreement, Anthropic has committed to purchase $30 billion of Azure compute capacity and contract additional capacity up to one gigawatt. The company's compute commitment will initially run on NVIDIA Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin systems, with both firms collaborating on design and engineering to optimise performance. "Anthropic is scaling its rapidly-growing Claude AI model on Microsoft Azure, powered by NVIDIA, which will broaden access to Claude and provide Azure enterprise customers with expanded model choice and new capabilities," Microsoft said in a blog post. The partnership makes Claude the only frontier AI model available across all three major cloud platforms - Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud. Microsoft has also committed to continuing C
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Mission Critical: CATL expansions to drive EV innovation
The world's largest battery maker CATL is facing market access risks due to the United States' decoupling legislation, a Pentagon blacklist and potential restrictions on grid components, yet price targets from JP Morgan are a 19% premium to its current share price. Europe is the EV growth corridor - CATL's Hungarian and Spanish plants will determine whether the Ningde-based tech giant maintains global dominance or becomes primarily an Asian supplier. Mixed newsflow from Contemporary Amperex Technology (HKEX: 3750) saw it post a 41% profit jump in Q3, ink a 200 gigawatt hour (GWh) decade-long supply deal and kick off mass production of 5th-generation lithium iron phosphate (LFP) and its Nextra sodium-ion batteries - all major milestones for the long term. Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers are cranking up restrictions on Chinese battery imports, a major shareholder offloaded 1% of stock, and cornerstone investors became free to sell from this week. Let's take a deeper look at the metrics and momentum of one of the most important companies in the electric vehicle revolution.200 GWh energy storage pactThe headline deal this month was a 10-year strategic pact with Beijing Hyperstrong Technology covering 200 GWh of battery supply fo
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Bezos to be co-CEO of new AI startup Project Prometheus
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will be co-CEO at a new artificial intelligence startup specialising in engineering and manufacturing, his first major role since stepping down from Amazon. The company, known as Project Prometheus, has already secured US$6.2 billion in funding, the New York Times reported. Physicist and chemist Vik Bajaj, former head of Google’s Verily life sciences research lab, will also be its co-CEO. Bezos stepped down as Amazon’s CEO in 2021, though he has remained as executive chair. “In the Exec Chair role, I intend to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives,” he wrote at the time. This will be Bezos’ first official operational role in any company since exiting as Amazon’s CEO. He is involved with space technology company Blue Origin, which he founded in 2000, but does not hold an operational title. Bezos and Bajaj have not yet disclosed any details on Project Prometheus’ technology, where the company will be based, or exactly when it was founded. It will support engineering and manufacturing for computers, aerospace technology, and automobiles. The company’s work will be similar to AI startup Periodic Labs, which hopes to train AI systems to perform scientific experime

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All eyes on NVIDIA Blackwell chips ahead of earnings
All eyes turn to CEO and co-founder Jensen Huang on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) when NVIDIA reports third-quarter fiscal 2026 results. With a US$4.62 trillion market cap commanding 8% of the entire S&P 500, swings in the chipmaker's share price ripple across tech, utilities and industrials - making this the most anticipated earnings release of the season. After weeks of debate about rising AI development costs and AMD and Broadcom making headway in the chip market, Huang gets his chance to remind everyone just how dominant NVIDIA remains. AMD reported $9.2 billion revenue last quarter - up 36% year-over-year, but still years behind NVIDIA's trajectory. Amazon is deploying $125 billion this year on AI infrastructure spending. Meta's burning through $72 billion. Microsoft and Alphabet have each committed north of $80 billion. Combined, Big Tech's infrastructure bet tops $380 billion so far this year - and NVIDIA is the primary beneficiary.Expectations Wall Street expects third-quarter revenue of $54.59 billion, marking 55.6% year-over-year growthConsensus earnings per share sits at $1.23, up 51.9% from the year-ago quarter's 81 centsGoldman Sachs analyst James Schneider projects fiscal third and fourth quarter EPS of $1.28 a
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AMD's Lisa Su targets 'double-digit' AI market share
CEO Lisa Su cites "insatiable" AI demand and key partnerships with OpenAI, Meta, and Oracle as drivers for a massive data centre expansion, as analysts raise price targets. Shares for Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) swung during Tuesday's session, ultimately closing down 2.32% to US$238.31, in a potential "sell-the-news" reaction to its highly anticipated Financial Analyst Day. The movement came as CEO Lisa Su laid out an aggressive financial forecast, projecting that AMD's overall revenue would expand by ~35% per year to 2030.Credit: AMD / XAMD's ambitious growth is to be driven by what she described as an "insatiable" demand for artificial intelligence chips. The primary engine for this expansion is the company’s AI data centre business, which Su expects to grow at a staggering 80% per year over the same time period. This trajectory puts the business on track to hit "tens of billions of dollars" in sales by 2027. Ultimately, Su said AMD is positioned to achieve a "double-digit" share in the highly competitive data centre AI chip market within the next five years. This is a direct challenge to the market's current leader, Nvidia, which holds an estimated 90%-plus market share. That dominance has given Nv
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China cools on Nexperia semiconductor trade tug-of-war
China has granted exemptions to its export controls on Nexperia semiconductors intended for civilian use, easing a month-long supply bottleneck that threatened to disrupt global automotive production. The Chinese commerce ministry confirmed the move on Sunday, though it didn't specify what qualifies as civilian applications. German and Japanese manufacturers have already reported receiving shipments, with Volkswagen's China chief telling Handelsblatt that initial exports have taken place. The development follows United States President Donald Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on 30 October, which produced a framework for resuming Nexperia's chip exports. China's commerce ministry said it would grant exemptions "to exports that meet the criteria" on a case-by-case basis.Tug-of-warThe crisis began when the Dutch government seized control of Netherlands-based Nexperia on 30 September, invoking a Cold War-era emergency law. The Hague claimed Chinese owner Wingtech was planning to relocate European production to China, threatening economic security. The move came under pressure from Washington, which added Wingtech to its entity list in December 2024 and expanded restrictions in September to cover all
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Texas Instruments slumps 8.1% on weak Q4 outlook
Texas Instruments shares slumped more than 8% in after-hours trading on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT) after the company forecast fourth-quarter revenue and profit below Wall Street expectations, citing ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty stemming from United States tariffs and the escalating trade dispute with China. The semiconductor manufacturer reported third-quarter earnings per share (EPS) of $1.48, narrowly below market expectations of $1.49, while revenue came in at US$4.74 billion, topping forecasts of $4.65 billion. The disappointing guidance overshadowed the modest revenue beat, sending Texas Instruments (NASDAQ: TXN) stock down 8.1% in after-hours trading. The shares are now down 4.5% year-to-date. For the fourth quarter, the company expects revenue between $4.22 billion and $4.58 billion, compared with market estimates of $4.51 billion, according to data from LSEG. It also projected earnings per share in the range of $1.13 to $1.39, below expectations of $1.41 per share. President and CEO Haviv Ilan said the company’s operational cash flow remains robust despite the challenging backdrop. “Our cash flow from operations of $6.9 billion for the trailing 12 months again underscored the strength of our business mode